Author: Trafficblast

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who recently won an Oscar for Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, have signed a new deal with Sony that’s reportedly worth $100 million or more.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lord and Miller will work on a lot of new and different projects as part of the nine-figure overall deal. This includes creating and producing new comedy and drama projects of their own and supervising others. They will also work on a number of TV shows based on Sony’s Marvel characters, including Spider-Man and related villains, as well as Venom, Morbius, Black Cat, and Silver Sable. All of the characters from Into the Spider-Verse may also get their own spinoffs that Lord and Miller may work on.

“This is a significant milestone for our television business, having the opportunity to work with two of the most creative forces in the industry in both our film and television businesses,” Sony Pictures Television chairman Mike Hopkins said in a statement. “Building on our strong IP and creating new franchises has been a key focus for SPE, and the best way to do that is to invest in remarkable storytellers like Phil and Chris.”

Lord and Miller already had an extensive working relationship with Sony, as the pair directed Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, and The Lego Movie, before producing Into the Spider-Verse.

Outside of Sony, Lord and Miller were announced as the directors of the Star Wars spinoff Solo, but Lucasfilm fired them and brought in Ron Howard.

“Together we aim to make groundbreaking work of the highest quality and integrity, and to place that work in convenient proximity to your eyeballs and earholes, wherever you may be,” Lord and Miller said in their own statement.

Avengers: Endgame is finally in theatres, and it brings about an end to storylines and narrative arcs that started a decade ago.

One major storyline has been the Infinity Gauntlet narrative that’s been the driving force of the interconnected stories thus far with the evil Thanos . Jim Starlin, who created Thanos (and Gamora and Drax) and also wrote the Infinity Gauntlet comic, has now shared his thoughts on Avengers: Endgame and Thanos’s fate.

SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS ENDGAME FOLLOW BELOW

Speaking to IGN, Starlin said he was “amazed” and “flabbergasted” by the events of Endgame. “The up and downs that you have on it. There’s some really heartbreaking moments mixed in with a lot of really funny little instances here and there,” he explained.

Thanos is killed twice in Endgame; once by Thor, who lops his head off, and a second time–for good–when Tony Stark wields the Gauntlet and snaps Thanos out of existence. Starlin remarked that he was particularly impressed by the way actor Josh Brolin performed Thanos’s final moments, when he accepted his fate and sat silently, awaiting his doom.

“His final moments in the movie I think are just priceless,” Starlin said. “His demeanor once he realizes what’s happening, I think that’s just one of those little moments in film that everyone is gonna remember. It’s like acceptance and taking it like a man, you know? I thought that was perfectly played.”

Also in the interview, Starlin said the character Gamora in the Marvel movies is above all the closest representation of what he created in the comics.

You can watch the full interview here at IGN.

Read next: Chris Pratt Shares “Illegal” Avengers Endgame Video From Film Set

Actor Chris Pratt has shared an “illegal” video from the set of Avengers: Endgame, and it’s quite a treat. The behind-the-scenes video, which contains what could be considered spoilery material, showcases a moment on set when the Avengers assembled.

In the single video we can see Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Dave Bautista, Jeremy Renner, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Evans, among other huge names. It appears that Pratt shot the video secretly–sort of. As you’ll see, Chris Evans catches him in the act and jokes that Pratt is going to get in trouble for filming what Pratt called a “really illegal video.” The video has since gone viral, racking up more than 14.6 million views.

Pratt’s caption reads: “I remember being blown away in this moment on the Avengers set. Nobody was allowed to film anything on their phones. I said screw it. No rule was going to stop me from seizing this once in a lifetime opportunity to capture this collection of stars, a groupthat likely will never be in the same room again. We are so blessed.”

Endgame released last week and shattered box office records with $1.2 billion over its first five days worldwide.

Read next: Avengers: Endgame Could Have Been Much Different, Here’s How

Epic’s popular free-to-play battle royale game Fortnite has added another Marvel skin. Joining the Black Widow skin is the new Star-Lord Outfit based on Chris Pratt’s appearance as the Guardians of the Galaxy superhero.

The Star-Lord outfit and related Back Bling are sold together in a bundle for 1,500 V-Bucks. There is also the Dance Off emote (500 V-Bucks), the Guardian Axe (500 V-Bucks), and the Milano glider (1,200 V-Bucks) that are also available to buy. Here’s a video of the outfit and the dance, while you can see more in the image gallery below.

In other Marvel/Fortnite news, Fortnite has a new “Endgame” mode available now where players can side with Thanos and his Chitauri Invaders or the Heroes trying to stop them. There is also a set of Fortnite Endgame challenges to complete, which will unlock more Avengers-inspired cosmetics.

Additionally, Season 8, Week 9’s challenges are available now, which means the current season is likely coming to an end soon. If you need any help, we’ve rounded up tips for the trickier tasks in our complete Season 8 challenges guide.

Star-Lord Outfit Set

Game developer Markus “Notch” Persson, who created the Minecraft franchise and sold it to Microsoft for $2.5 billion USD, will not be involved with the franchise’s upcoming 10th anniversary celebration event. A spokesperson for Microsoft told Variety that they are excluding him due to his “comments and opinions.”

“His comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft,” a representative told the site.

As part of Microsoft’s acquisition of Minecraft and developer Mojang, Persson stepped away from the series. The Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that this remains the case; he hasn’t worked on the franchise since he sold it to Microsoft years ago.

Microsoft did not point to any specific comments or opinions from Persson that led to his exclusion from the event, but a number of his tweets and comments on a variety of subjects have garnered criticism.

Persson reportedly owned 70 percent of Mojang, so he could have made more than $1.5 billion in the Microsoft buyout between cash and shares. He spent $70 million on a Beverly Hills mansion that Beyonce and Jay-Z were also eyeing.

Persson’s exclusion from the May 17 Minecraft celebration event in Stockholm is not the first instance of Microsoft distancing itself from Persson. In March, an update to Minecraft removed a reference to Persson, though he is still listed as the game’s creator in the credits.

As for the upcoming Minecraft event, it aims to give fans a look at the “past, present, and exciting future of the decade-old franchise.”

Minecraft remains one of the most popular games ever. Available on basically every platform that plays games, Minecraft has 91 million monthly players as of October 2018, which is many millions more than Fortnite has.

At the start of April, 343 Industries announced that it hoped it might be able to release Halo: The Master Chief Collection‘s first PC beta test during the month. But now it turns out that’s not going to happen.

Community director Brian Jarrard said on Twitter that the team had to delay the first beta test, or “flight” in the Halo parlance, due in part to the complexity of the project. Here’s his full statement:

The delay is a bummer, especially because fans have been waiting so long for Halo: The Master Chief Collection to come to PC, but it’s refreshing to hear 343 speak so openly about the development process. There is no word yet as to when the first flights will be available, but Jarrard added that a more in-depth blog post is coming this week with answers.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to PC in stages, beginning with Halo: Reach (which is also releasing for Xbox One) and continuing chronologically from there–Halo: CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and then Halo 4. The titles will be released on PC through betas with the aim of testing each title with a limited group of people first before rolling out publicly for everyone. You can sign up for the free Halo Insider program here for a chance to try out the games early.

Each title within the Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC will be sold individually, but the “flights” are free, if you get in. And in a big change for the series, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be available through Steam.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection originally launched in November 2014 for Xbox One. It faced serious and significant server issues at launch that made the title basically unplayable for some. Microsoft improved the experience significantly over time, and today the title is mostly stable and highly populated with players thanks in part to its inclusion with Xbox Game Pass.

The next Halo game, Halo Infinite, is in the works for PC and Xbox One. It’s supposedly going to be featured during Microsoft’s E3 2019 briefing in June.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!